Remy Ma is a rapper and songwriter, and also one of the very few female rappers who has made it big in the American hip hop industry. Her raw talent was initially discovered by Big Pun but she later joined Fat Joe’s label after the death of Big Pun and became a member of Terror Squad.

Her work as a member of the squad shot her into fame and today, the female rapper has two Vibe awards, two Source awards, three Grammy nominations and is one of three multiple winners of the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, which she has wone three times.

Remy Ma’s Bio

Reminisce Mackie (née Smith), known in the professional circle as Remy Ma, was born on May 30, 1980, and grew up in Castle Hill Projects, Bronx, New York. As a child, Ma suffered as a result of the problem of drug addiction in her family and was saddled with the responsibility of taking care of her younger ones. Writing poetry was her only escape from the problems in her family and she soon became popular in her neighborhood.

She also started rap battling with her schoolmates, inculcating her poetry into her raps. Soon after, she started battling professional rappers and later became a popular freestyle rapper in her neighborhood. With her growing popularity around the Bronx, the late MC Big Pun heard of her work and subsequently became her mentor after one meeting and a freestyle session with her.

Her first appearance in the music industry was on Big Pun’s album Yeeeah Baby, under the name Remy Martin, on the tracks Ms. Martin and You Was Wrong. After the death of her mentor, Big Pun, Ma signed up with Fat Joe’s label, becoming a member of the Terror Squad. As a member of the group, they produced a song, Lean Back.

The rapper released her debut studio album There’s Something About Remy: Based on a True Story in 2006 and due to the success of Lean Back, she received a Grammy nomination and later released three singles, Whuteva, Conceited and Feels So Good from her debut album.

Among her many songs, Ma’s most successful songs are Ante Up (Remix), Lean Back, Conceited, and All the Way Up.

In 2008, Ma was found guilty of shooting a woman named Makeeda Barnes-Joseph outside New York City hot spot Pizza Bar and was consequently, sentenced to 8 years in prison at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women.

The Lean Back singer accused the victim of stealing $3,000 from her purse. After a verbal altercation, Ma shot her in her lower torso while she searched for the money in Makeeda’s purse and later left in a nearby waiting car, leaving Makeeda to die. She would later serve six years in prison and was released on August 1, 2014.

Since 2015, she has featured on VH1’s reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York alongside her husband, Papoose and has also released many singles.

Net Worth

Remy Ma’s music is widespread and from it, she made a lot of money before she was sent to prison. She, however, lost a good amount of that money due to her legal troubles which saw her paying compensation, civil lawsuit, and legal fees. In a bid to step up the financial ladder again, the rap queen has been working hard on her career and has contracted with many record labels and reality TV shows.

Ma currently earns $350,000 every year through professional contracts and also makes a huge amount of money from her endorsements to big companies like Gucci, Moschino and Fashion Nova in addition to her TV shows Remy & Papoose: Meet the Mackies and Love & Hip Hop. Remy’s recent ventures and songs have caused some ripples in the music industry and she has some Grammy nominations and more money to prove that.

As of 2014, the rapper’s net worth took a nose dive, landing at around $500,000, but now the tides are in her favor. With an average annual income of $3 million, the rap queen has an estimated net worth of $4 million as of 2018. This figure will surely increase in no time as the unstoppable lady keeps her fire burning.

Remy Ma: Husband, Son

Remy Ma is married to Shamele Mackie, an American rapper and songwriter better known by his stage name Papoose. They find themselves in the same industry but while Ma is a rapper, her husband is a mixtape rapper who produced and distributed his own mixtapes in the early 2000’s. Although Papoose who is of Liberian descent, achieved a level of popularity in 1998 after he appeared on Kool G Rap’s Roots of Evil album, he became widely famous when he and Remy Ma featured on VH1’s Love and Hip Hop: New York sequel to her release from prison.

The couple was supposed to get married in a yacht in 2008, but unfortunately, Ma’s legal trouble with a looming prison sentence made them change the plan. Consequently, Papoose decided to marry her in prison on March 27, 2008.

On the planned wedding day which was just one day before Ma’s sentence was to begin, the love-struck rapper to whom she was betrothed tried to smuggle a universal handcuff key on to Rikers Island jail. Contrary to the expectation of feisty Papoose, prison wardens searched him and uncovered the key and subsequently dispatched him from the jail.

However, the following day, the duo eventually got married inside the courtroom just before she was sentenced to prison. Meanwhile, Papoose was barred from visiting his wife for six months.

While she was in prison, Papoose was always there for her. According to the “All the Way Up” star, he was so ‘bad’ that she had to tell him to stop visiting her. Even though the maximum security prison in Bedford, NY, where she was, was about an hour and a half drive from where Papoose was living in Brooklyn at the time, he still visited her every single day of her first year in jail.

In February 2016, the lovebirds had a more traditional marriage ceremony and on July 3, 2018, they celebrated their ten year marriage anniversary, choosing to mark this milestone with an intimate vow renewal ceremony.

Shortly after renewing their vows, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child together. In an Instagram post on July 3, 2018, Remy revealed that she was four months gone. The news was extra special for the hip-hop mega couple as Ma had suffered an ectopic pregnancy which ended in a miscarriage in 2017. The excited expectant father tattooed the baby’s sonogram on his inner arm.

Meanwhile, the “Shether” rap queen has a son named Jayson. The young chap who was born in 2000 is the product of a previous relationship. He graduated from high school six months early in 2018. Jayson has on his arm, a simple, cursive inscription of his number one lady, Remy. Ma also has three stepchildren with her husband.

Relationship With Nicki Minaj

In 2007, Nicki Minaj released her first mixtape, Playtime is Over. The mixtape had a freestyle record, nicknamed “Dirty Money”, which Ma believed the verses were a stab at her although Minaj never confirmed or denied this. That was the beginning of their feud.

Even though the two rappers shared words of encouragement in recent years, their friendship soon went cold and they started releasing songs with verses and lyrics targeted at each other. These include Minaj’s Make Love with Gucci Mane and Ma’s Money Showers with Fat Joe.

On February 25, 2017, Ma released Shether, a diss track to Minaj in which Remy suggested that Minaj was happy when she (her biggest competitor) was sent to jail. The track was also filled with jabs aimed at Minaj’s body, her sexual history, her past relationship with Meek Mill and many more. Remy Ma followed this up with another track aimed at her colleague titled Another One.

During an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show on March 3, 2017, Ma went ahead to accuse Niki Minaj on of trying to keep her away from the red carpets and trying to ensure that she gets no awards. In an interview with Buzzfeed, one week later, Ma seemed sorry for insulting Minaj saying she does not condone or recommend the tearing down of another female especially when it’s someone who like her, came from the bottom and has managed to make something of herself.

She added, “However, in the event that you piss me off and we become archenemies, run for cover”. Responding with the song No Frauds, Minaj accused Ma of spreading falsehoods. On June 12, 2017, Ma performed at Hot 97’s Summer Jam and in the course of the stage performance, she repeatedly shot f*ck-bullets at Minaj.

When Remy and her husband, Papoose, stopped by The Wendy Williams Show on September 28, 2018, to promote their upcoming VH1 special Meet The Mackies, Wendy Williams asked Remy about her present situation with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B and the Terror Squad femcee said there was no beef. In her words: “It’s no relationship”. Ma further said that she harbors no ill feelings or wish bad on Minaj.